Suburban Dreaming is a chapbook of poems by Michèle Nardelli, a one-time regular contributor to Poet’s Corner who appeared again recently with her moving poem Ghost Play.
Nardelli majored in English and psychology at Flinders University, embarked on a career in editing, journalism and public relations in South Australia, and currently works at UniSA as manager of News & Media.
Poetry and creative writing have been her private passions since those Flinders English days, to the extent that she has finally decided to publish this first collection of poems. Suburban Dreaming is divided into two sections – “Home” and “Away” – and explores the importance of place in shaping people’s perceptions.
Today’s poem, Hometown, is from the collection and displays the same poignancy that characterises all Nardelli’s work.
Hometown
Flattened streets and yellowed curbs
in dry heat that only you possess,
that bakes your skin before it sweats
I feel the endless drift of years, spent here.
You hold every happy moment in your
crisp shell, my life’s clarion bell,
all that’s familiar to a subtle heart,
and yet I want to stand apart, from you.
Adelaide, little city where I was born,
where I got played, I loved and lost,
the place that spawned my gypsy soul,
and yet still holds me in its thrall.
Schoolgirl winters of gloves and hats,
blazer-braced against the wind
that whistled with the moving trains
into town and home again, the same.
The autumns full of golden glows
of troubled adolescent prose
the time alone and time with friends
the struggle to feel free descends.
Springs that promised more than this
that hinted at the world outside
when circumstances and bitter fruit
came together and conspired,
to keep me here in Adelaide
this refuge and this tower.
A place I know I yearn to leave,
a place in which I stayed.
A limited number of copies of Suburban Dreaming is available for $10, which includes postage, from the author at [email protected].
Readers’ original and unpublished poems up to 30 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.
